Fuel Smarts

Alternative Fuels & Hybrids

Each year, Heavy Duty Trucking honors a handful of the country’s most forward-thinking fleet executives with the title of “HDT Truck Fleet Innovator.” Read how this year's winners are using the power of collaboration to spec the best trucks and operate more efficiently -- and profitably.

Not long ago I was at my desk looking to write about some aspect of where we’re heading. Then I flicked on the little TV beside me to watch the news, and what did I see but a piece about algae as a fuel source. Clearly a sign.

While natural gas has pushed its way to center stage in the alternative fuels discussion, the investment in equipment and infrastructure make it less than appealing to many fleets. However, anyone who is currently running on diesel fuel can easily switch to a greener alternative without that type of up-front investment. They simply have to fill up their fuel tank with biodiesel.

Volvo Trucks North America believes dimethyl ether, or DME, is the real fuel of the future, and the company intends to get it to market as a motor fuel by 2015 in Volvo VN models as well as Mack Pinnacle trucks from its sister company.

After more than 40 years of using propane as a motor fuel, the people at The Schwan Food Co. still believe they’ve got the right stuff. Schwan’s experience with propane goes back to the 1970s, when Arab oil embargoes threatened supplies of gasoline and diesel and drove up their prices.

A dual-fuel conversion system can offer some of the fuel- and emissions-saving benefits of a natural gas engine without going out and buying a brand-new truck. Read more in this story from the September issue of HDT.

Says the butcher: “We eat what we sell.” Says Kwik-Trip: “We burn what we sell.” That’s natural gas, sold in liquefied and compressed form at 15 of the 430 retail filling stations the company operates in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

Despite the per-gallon savings a fleet might enjoy with alternative fuel, the full cost of alternative fuels goes well beyond that. The Propane Education and Research Council says propane autogas offers advantages over natural gas when it comes to the fueling infrastructure.

While the benefits of CNG vehicles are well documented, one issue looms over the industry that must be addressed: What happens when a dedicated CNG vehicle fuel tank reaches its expiration date? Industry experts continue to explore options for possible CNG tank recertification, as well as safer tank disposal, a federal CNG vehicle registration system, and government grant help.

A research team from Georgia Tech compared medium-duty electric and diesel urban delivery trucks for a range of scenarios and discovered the total costs of ownership were very similar – but the cost-competitiveness of the electric truck drops in drive cycles with higher average speed.

Think “alternative fuel” and what comes to mind – natural gas, or maybe propane? Volvo Trucks North America believes it has one better: dimethyl ether, or DME, which it thinks is the real fuel of the future. Volvo, with the help of a small chemical company, financial investors and officials in the state of California, intends to get it to market as a motor fuel by 2015.

Greening a fleet can be a daunting prospect, but as fuel prices continue to rise, the opportunity to save money has increased. Significant and easily accessible funding is now available in California through the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP)

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has directed city departments to build on earlier "green fleet" efforts to cut the city's annual use of petroleum-based fuels by 1 million gallons by 2020, using electric and alternative fueled vehicles, biodiesel and more efficient use of vehicles.

Chicago has ordered 20 heavy-duty, electric-powered trash trucks that will be the first of their kind in the nation.
The electric trucks will run almost silently, produce practically no emissions and, with no traditional pow-ertrains to fuel and maintain, will cut operating costs by at least 50%, says Jim Castelaz, chief executive officer of Motiv Power Systems.

The old saying goes, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Life, or in this case, a landfill, gave DeKalb County, Ga., methane gas - so the Sanitation Department decided to make vehicle fuel.
In 2009, DeKalb County, located just east of Atlanta, was experiencing the same economic frustrations and high fuel prices as the rest of the country

Natural gas prices neared the lowest they've been in about a decade last winter, as utilities scrambled to take advantage of the fuel's low price tag and producers began to turn away from the low-profit fuel

The engine products of the joint venture between Cummins Inc. and Westport Innovations now dominate the existing, albeit small, market for natural gas trucks, but more are on the way from other sources, indicated manufacturer representatives during the American Trucking Associations' recent Natural Gas Summit

There are only about 167,000 natural gas-fueled vehicles in the United States, according the head of a group that promotes natural gas as a vehicle fuel, but its abundance and cheap price is spurring so much interest that an almost overflow crowd turned up at the American Trucking Associations Natural Gas Summit, which began yesterday in Alexandria, Va

One of the key roadblocks to wider adoption of natural gas fuel by the trucking industry has been a lack of fueling infrastructure. In the past, natural gas was mostly an option only for companies that could return to a central fueling station each night.

The environmental and image benefits of being "green" and reducing dependence on foreign oil are among the reasons fleets are looking at natural gas fuel for trucks, but even the most diehard "green" fleet is still looking for a return on its investment

Last year, food and fuel retailer Giant Eagle unveiled its first two compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations in the Pittsburgh area at its Beechnut Drive retail support and distribution center. The demonstration included a fuel-up of one of its brand-new natural gas-powered VNM daycabs

Propane is no longer just for your backyard barbeque or the furnace and water heater in your rural home. It's an efficient and economical fuel that powers millions of vehicles overseas, and proponents in the United States say it deserves to catch on in a big way here

A new report from Pike Research forecasts steady growth in the market for natural gas trucks and buses. Annual worldwide sales of these vehicles will more than double over the next seven years, the firm says, growing from less than 70,000 in 2012 to more than 180,000 in 2019

Interest is high in natural gas as a heavy-duty truck fuel. With a dollar per diesel-equivalent gallon differential, why wouldn't it be? Natural gas is likely to remain less expensive than diesel for the foreseeable future, and domestic supplies of the stuff are plentiful. Is natural gas a savior-in-waiting for beleaguered diesel buyers?
Maybe, but here are six questions you need to ask before taking the plunge

Clean Energy Fuels now provides a listing of trucking companies, refuse haulers, fleet operators, airports, municipalities and other organizations that have signed new or expanded existing fuel agreements.

In the August issue of HDT, we kicked off a series on "Natural Gas: What Fleets Need to Know." In addition to the features in the magazine, on this page we offer additional online articles and resources

Amidst all the brouhaha about natural gas, the biodiesel option appears to have gone quiet. It still has a near-cult-like following in some quarters, but in the freight-transportation mainstream, biodiesel is a very small player at this point.

The world no longer seems concerned about "peak oil" (the idea that oil reserves are going to run out), and today's clean-diesel engines have addressed many environmental concerns about truck exhaust. Most industry experts believe conventional diesel fuel will remain the dominant fuel for commercial vehicles for decades to come

Kwik Trip, a convenience store and fuel chain with more than 400 locations in three states, is promoting liquefied and compressed natural gas as fuel sources to help increase nationwide adoption of LNG and CNG in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and other areas.

Is natural gas truly the fuel of the future, or is it just an overhyped niche? That's what many wondered in the wake of March's Mid-America Trucking Show, where it seemed nearly every press conference and OE booth had something to say about it

A chrome-plated exhaust stack emits a muted whoosh as this truck's turbine engine spins at tens of thousands of RPMs, drawing the curious among attendees at this ride-and-drive event in downtown Long Beach, Calif.

The momentum toward natural gas as a motor fuel has been building for several years, and we don't know how far it will take the national "fleet." Some people would like gas to be a major automotive fuel because it's comparatively clean and "green," domestically produced

When you've got everyone from oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to the head of America's largest truckload fleet to President Obama himself stumping for natural-gas-powered trucks, it's easy to see why there's so much interest in this less-expensive, home-grown alternative to $4-a-gallon diesel

Driver Tim Mabry eases his foot onto the pedal, and what appears to be a plain white Freightliner tractor moves ahead briskly, making only a faint whirring sound. We are being propelled through an industrial neighborhood in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., by an electric moto

BAE Systems is a multi-national company that says it has built HybriDrive electric powertrains for more than 3,500 transit buses in cities around the world, plus many thousands of straight diesel trucks for the U.S. Army. And it's developing hydrogen fuel cells and electric propulsion systems. So it seems to have strong credentials to design and market HybriDrive versions for Class 6, 7 and 8 trucks